Preparations for Passover

The glories of Calvary, to be able to talk about the glory of the cross is exactly what Luke 22 to the end is about and really what the whole Bible is about. And I was thinking this past week as I sit and prepare for our time in Israel, which begins this week and into the next week, to understand and help people come to grips with the reality of what takes place on Calvary. I was sitting and thinking about the cross and the whole intensity of the cross. You know, when it talks about, and they led him up to Calvary to be crucified, it's very simply stated in the scriptures, but everything in the scripture points to Calvary.

Everything stems from Calvary. It's all about the cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord. So many people just don't understand the essence of the cross. When Jesus died, it wasn't the end of his ministry. It truly was the essence of his entire ministry. It's why he came. He came to die. He rose victorious over sin and Satan and death. And he is the one who died triumphantly, victoriously. He did not die as a victim. And so to understand everything centered around the cross is crucial for us as believers.

We need to understand that Calvary, the cross, is a place of the solution, the solution. And the solution was given before there was ever a problem. We come up with solutions because there's a problem, so we must solve the problem. But the solution, before there was ever a problem, was given in eternity past. The solution was determined in eternity because he is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. We know that the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 1, these words in verse number 9, that God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which has granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

So that tells us about God's predetermined plan, how everything was solved before there was ever a problem, before sin ever entered the world. That's why the cross is the solution. Listen, I'm not an economist, so I can't handle your financial problems. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't handle your mental problems. I'm not a sociologist, and I can't handle your social problems. But I am an evangelist, and I can handle your spiritual problem. And that's the only one that really matters. All those other problems are temporary issues.

But your spiritual issues, that's what really matters, because that leads to eternity. And the cross is the solution to all your spiritual issues. Everything that centers around your eternity is settled at Calvary's cross. We need to come to grips with that. So that which was determined in eternity was then delineated through prophecy. That solution was delineated through prophecy. When Adam and Eve sinned, we come to understand that through the death, through the sacrificial death, there is a covering provided for sin.

We learned that from Adam and Eve. We learned from Abel that through the death of a sacrifice, then that is the only thing that's pleasing to God. We learned from Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 that the sacrifice that God's going to give, he himself will provide. And we learned from the Passover that the only sacrifice that God accepts is an unblemished sacrifice. So everything in the Old Testament delineated beforehand that which actually happened at Calvary because it was determined in eternity past.

We need to realize that what took place in the life of Christ, all the promises, all the predictions, all the preaching that he did centered around the cross of Calvary because it was the solution to man's sinful problem. And so God had it all mapped out from the very beginning. So to understand the cross, you must understand the cross as the solution. You must understand the cross as the submission, the submission. It's the ultimate act of submission. Philippians 2 talks about how Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross.

It's the ultimate act of submission. And Christ fulfilled that. He said these words in John's gospel in John 4, verse number 34, my food is to do the work or do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work. That's my food, Christ says.

In John 5, verse number 30, he said, I do not seek my own will, but the one who sent me. In John 6, 38, I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. Psalm 40, verse number 8, in a fulfillment of prophecy, the Lord God said, I delight to do thy will. The cross is the solution. It is the submission that is portrayed for all to see, to understand the uniqueness of Christ in all that he is and what he came to do. The glory of the cross, and traveling the cross is the message of the gospel.

The cross is the substitution. It is the substitution. The Bible says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. The Bible says in the book of Ezekiel, the soul that sins, it will die.

But the prophet said, Isaiah 53, these words, surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging, we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. The cross is a place of the substitution.

There had to be a substitute, someone to die in our place. It had to be a sinless, spotless, unblemished substitute. And Christ is that one. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3, verse number 18, the just died for the unjust.

In 1 Peter 2, verse number 24, he bore our sins in his body on the tree. 1 Corinthians 15, 3, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Galatians 3, verse number 13, he became a curse for us. The substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ our Lord provides salvation for people like you and me who have a problem. We're separated from God and we need to be reconciled to God. That's why the cross is the solution. It is the submission. It is the substitution. It is the separation. It is the ultimate separation.

For when Christ hung on Calvary's tree for three hours, it became pitch black. It became absolutely dark. People fumbling around, trying to get to the temple to offer their sacrifices, and it was pitch black. Because darkness symbolizes the judgment of God, the anger of God. It also symbolizes the absence of God. And it's the only time in the life of our Lord where he calls his father, not father, but God. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's the only time he addresses him as God. Every other time it's father.

Why? Because the cross is the ultimate separation. The abandonment of God the Father from God the Son, where he was separated from him for three hours when he bore in his body your sin and mine, he bore the penalty so you wouldn't have to pay it. It's the ultimate separation. That's what caused him to sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen, when he said, Father, if it be your will, have this cup passed from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. It wasn't because he was afraid to die.

It wasn't because of the physical pain he would endure. He knew that would last only for a brief moment of time. The physical pain was not his concern. It was a spiritual agony. He would endure being separated from his father for those three hours when he bore your sin and mine on his body or in his body on the tree. That's why it says these words in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 11. As a result of the anguish of his soul, God will see it and be satisfied. What was the anguish of his soul? It was the fact that he would come to die for your sins and mine and suffer the excruciating pain of separation from his father.

And when those three hours were done and he cried, it is finished. He could do that because he said, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. He had paid the price. He had accomplished his purpose. And now he addresses him as father into thy hands. I commend my spirit. It's the place of ultimate separation. It's the place of ultimate substitution. It's the place of ultimate submission. It's the place of ultimate solution because that's what Calvary is. The cross is the place of ultimate satisfaction.

The place of ultimate satisfaction. We just read it earlier in Isaiah 53 verse number 11. Because of the anguish of his soul, God would see it and be satisfied. The Bible says in 1 John 4 verse number 10, he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction for our sins.

It was through the death of Christ that he would satisfy God's wrath against sin. And he did that. He paid the price. It's the place of ultimate satisfaction. He rendered his soul, Isaiah 53 10, as a guilt offering. He rendered his soul as a guilt offering. And thus it brought pleasure to his father because it says in Isaiah 53 verse number 10, that it pleased the Lord to crush his son. So that which is the place of ultimate solution is the place of ultimate submission. And that place of ultimate submission is the place of ultimate substitution.

And the only way he could provide the ultimate substitution was to provide the ultimate separation. And because he provided the ultimate separation, he provides the ultimate satisfaction because now his father is pleased. It's also the place of salvation. It's the place of salvation. There's no salvation without the cross. Never has been. That's why when you present the gospel, if you don't present the cross, you haven't presented the gospel. You might presented a gospel, but not the gospel. There's a big difference.

A lot of times we present the gospel, but leave out the fact that Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. That is the gospel presented to you by Jesus Christ our Lord. If you don't present that gospel, you've presented a different gospel. It's all about the cross of Christ. What happened on Calvary and the requirements that God places upon those who follow him because we are to take up our cross and follow him. That's why the cross is the place of salvation.

In a few, in a few months, we'll see the thief who hung on the cross and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Christ would say to him today, you shall be with me in paradise. And we'll be able to understand what that thief saw and what that thief knew as he hung by Jesus Christ our Lord on Calvary's mountain. We'll be able to see it, understand it because the cross is the place of ultimate salvation, the ultimate sanctification. The centurion that said, truly this man was the son of God and Luke's gospel tells us that he glorified God in saying so.

It was a place of salvation for the centurion. It was a place of salvation for the criminal who hung beside him. And it's the place of salvation for all lost sinners who come and bow at the foot of the cross and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. It's the place of salvation. And listen, because it is the place of solution, submission, substitution, separation, satisfaction, and salvation, it is the place of ultimate sublimation, ultimate glory, ultimate majesty, truly beauty, truly grander.

Everything stems from the cross. Everything does. It is the place of supreme beauty. Oh, you go to Calvary today and you stand at Calvary and you're able to see the place which they call Gogetha, the place of the skull. And you know that Christ was not crucified on top of the mountain, but at the bottom of the mountain. And you understand that by reading the text and you begin to realize the glory of the cross, but there's an Arab bus station at the base of the mountain. And it doesn't look like much today, but boy, I tell you, it's everything there is in the world.

The cross of Christ. It's the place of beauty. It's the place of nobility. It's the place of majesty. It is the place of glory. He was lifted up high for all to see. And our Lord died and rose again because it was the ultimate exaltation of Christ. He said, father, the hour has come glorify thy name and the Lord will be glorified through Calvary's cross. The cross is such a place of majesty, a place of beauty. And we come and we bow at the foot of the cross in humble submission to the glory of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Having said that, turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 22, and we look at the, at the preparation for Passover, because in the preparation for the Passover comes that precision of the cross.

Everything that Christ is doing is moving him to Calvary's mount. Everything that Christ is doing is leading him once again to Mount Moriah, the place for seen by God. Everything that Christ is doing is orchestrating the events of life in the superficial leaders in the life of the son of perdition in even in Satan's life. Everything is being orchestrated by the Lord God of Israel. He is making sure that everything happens specifically on time in the way that he had prescribed it. You can say it this way.

The father, the father formulated the plan, the spirit fortified the plan and the son fulfilled the plan. For the triune God was involved in everything surrounding the cross of Calvary. And so Christ, as he would orchestrate all the events, you're going to see in this story exactly how he does that. Once again, let me read it to you.

Luke 22 verse number seven, then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. And they said to him, where do you want us to prepare it? He said to them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water, follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large furnished upper room, prepare it there.

And they departed and found everything just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover verses one to six of Luke 22. It's still Wednesday. When you come to verse number seven, it's Thursday of Passover week. It's Thursday and everything that the sovereign Lord is doing in the life of the superficial leaders, Satan, the son of the perdition, Judas himself, and his students, his disciples, his learners, everything he is doing is bringing about the hour. The Bible says in Mark's account, I'm sorry, Matthew's account in Matthew 26, verse number 18, it says these words, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand.

I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. My time is at hand. It is a word that means my epic is at hand. The epic time of my life is at hand. Everything is coming about as I have planned it. The time is now when Christ is preparing everything for this Passover meal. It's a place that no one knows. Peter and John do not know. The disciples do not know. They can't know. Why can't they know? Well, Judas has already had Satan influence him, already had Satan enter into him. He's already gone to Caiaphas's house.

We saw that last week. He's already willing to betray the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. He's already willing to do that. If Judas knows where the Passover is going to take place, because Judas knows they're going to celebrate the Passover. If he knows that he can tell the religious establishment and they can come in secret and obtain him. So Judas can't know. Judas cannot know, although he might want to know. Peter and John don't know because Judas could get Peter and John aside and say, hey, where did Jesus say you guys are going?

Because then he could get word to the religious establishment and they could find him in secret. They couldn't capture him publicly because there were so many crowds around them. We saw last week, they feared there'd be a riot that would take place. And so they know, or Judas knows, if I can get him in secret and betray him to the religious establishment, then they can come and take him in secrecy, holding through Passover to all the crowds subside, and then they can deal with him. What is Satan's plan?

Satan does not want Christ to go to Calvary's cross. He doesn't want him to die as a substitute. He doesn't want him to die submissively as a substitute to the sovereign God to satisfy the wrath of God. He does not want that to happen. He doesn't want people to believe in him. So he will do everything he can to detract him from the cross. Even when Satan would come that night in the garden of Gethsemane and tempt him ferociously, that when he would sweat great drops of blood, he was being tempted by Satan to bypass the cross.

But he would not, for that was his purpose in coming. He came to die for your sins and for mine. So Christ is going to celebrate the Passover, but nobody knows where except Jesus. He's the only one. Did he make preparations earlier with this man who carried a water pitcher to this man who has this home? We don't know. Does it have to do that? Because he can supernaturally impose anything he wants to have happen. He can do whatever he wants, but everything is done in secret so that he could fulfill the Passover.

He asked him. Why? Because there's so much yet he has to do all the, all the beautiful, uh, recording in John 14 to 16, all the things that took place with the disciples during that Passover meal, the washing of their feet and all the company gave to the troubled souls of the disciples. You see for us as Christians, the ultimate comfort to the troubled soul is taken from John 14 through John 16. That's the comfort that God gives to his men who were so troubled. He wouldn't be able to do that. If they came and they took him early and captured him, that wouldn't be accomplished.

He knows that he knows all that has to happen before the exact time that they come to get him in the garden of Gethsemane. He knows that it's happening on time. It's happening on his time because he is in absolute control. Why Peter and John? Why Peter and John? The Bible says, then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

He sent Peter and John. Why not James and John, the sons of thunder? Why Peter and John? Well, Peter and John will be very instrumental in the first part of the book of Acts in the start of the church, but you couldn't send any more than two people to sacrifice the lamb.

Why is that? Well, remember there are hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem. You couldn't have the whole family go to sacrifice the lamb. It'd be too crowded. You couldn't get everybody in there. So you could only send two individuals. Christ chose Peter and John. He doesn't tell them where to go. There is no street name. There's no house location. There's no name given of the man, nothing's given. They have to go by faith. They have to go and find this man. And finding him would be very difficult.

Think about it. It's Thursday morning of Passion Week. What happened on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Passion Week? There were so many people in there. They're expecting Jesus to show up on Thursday morning as he did on Wednesday morning, as he did on Tuesday morning, as he did on Monday morning. They expected him to show up again. So the crowds will get there early to get a glimpse of Jesus. It's going to be filled with people, right? And they have to find one man carrying a pitcher of water.

How are they going to do that? Well, historians tell us that it's usually the women who carried the pitchers of water and not the men. Interesting. That doesn't mean, fellas, you can go to Costco today and have your wife carry the water out of Costco when you buy it today, okay? But the bottom line is, is that that's what women did. So to find a man carrying a pitcher of water would be unusual. They were to find this man and they were to follow this man. That's the instructions that were given. And once they entered the house, they would talk to the man of the house and tell him that the teacher, how many teachers do you think there were in Jerusalem at Passover?

Hundreds, thousands of them. But the teacher has need of a particular room to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. So everything was being orchestrated by the sovereignty of Almighty God. Everything was on a divine timetable. Nothing happened too early. Nothing happened too late. It all happened at the right time. He would send Peter and John. This would take the better part of the day. They would have to obtain the lamb. They would have to go and sacrifice the lamb because the sacrifice would happen.

As the book of Exodus tells us between the two evenings, between three and six on that day. Okay. That's between the two evenings from the time the sun begins to set. And by the time it actually does set is between the two evenings. When Jesus dies, he's going to die on Passover. When all Passover lambs are sacrificed between the two evenings, between the hours of three and six, he would have to die. He did die at three o'clock, had to be off of the cross and buried before the evening. And so you realize that everything is on a divine timetable.

And so Peter and John would have to go and they'd have to obtain the lamb. They'd have to go and wait in line to sacrifice the lamb. Once they sacrifice the lamb, as the book of Exodus tells us, they would take part of that meat with them. They would leave part of the meat with the priest and they would take that meat and they would have to go back and prepare that meat. They'd have to have that roasted lamb and they had to prepare it in a specific way. They have to prepare everything for the Passover.

They'd have to prepare the unleavened bread because they were living on the Mount of Olives. They'd have unleavened bread in their satchels. So they have to go and obtain unleavened bread. The unleavened bread would signify the fact that they had no evil influence from Egypt. When they left, they left in haste. Unleavened bread doesn't take much time to bake. Therefore you leave without having the yeast in there. And therefore it signifies the fact that there is no evil influence from Egypt. That's why they celebrated with unleavened bread.

We'll talk more about this when we talk about the actual Passover meal. But they're going to celebrate the last official Passover. Okay. This is the last official Passover. Okay. Because Christ is going to transform this Passover into the Lord's table. Because you see there is a greater deliverance than Israel out of Egypt. And the greatest deliverance is man from the bondage of his sin. So the Lord's table is that new memorial that we celebrate in honor of the Lord God delivering us from our enslavement to sin.

And the Lord is going to transform that Passover into the Lord's table. So Peter and John have to go and they have to prepare all this stuff and get it all together. It's going to take them the better part of the day before Jesus and his men arrive. And once they arrive and Judas is there, Judas can't leave. He's got him in there to celebrate the Passover. He doesn't leave until Jesus tells him to leave. It's a plan completely orchestrated by the sovereign God. He says, behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large furnished upper room, prepare it there. And they did exactly as Jesus said. I wonder what must have been going through the mind of Peter and John when they began to descend the Mount of Olives, cross over the Kidron Valley, ascend up into the Eastern Gate, looking for this man who had this pitcher of water.

The Bible records no conversation between the two, but it was something that God had orchestrated and it put into motion so that once they were able to see and understand what God was doing, it'd be one more fact in their mind that would help them understand that their Lord is in complete control of everything. And he absolutely was. Now, this is important. Why? Because Jesus is going to celebrate the Passover on Thursday, but isn't the Passover on Friday? If he's going to be sacrificed at Passover, when all the Passover lambs are being sacrificed on Calvary on Friday, how then can he celebrate the Passover on Thursday?

I'm sure you were wondering that question. You had to ask yourself that question. And the answer is very, very simple. Let me explain it to you.

You can read about this in the Mishnah, the codification of Jewish laws. You can read about it in Josephus on how the Jews determined the time of day. If I'm a Jew, I live in the northern part of Israel. The day is determined from sunrise to sunrise. If I'm a Jew and I live in the southern part of Israel, the day is determined from sunset to sunset. You get that? So the 14th of Nisan, if I'm from the north, goes from sunrise on Thursday to sunrise on Friday. If I'm a Jew in the south, the 14th of Nisan begins at sunset on Thursday and goes to sunset on Friday.

You with me so far? This is very important to understand. It's not hard to get because they overlap. This solved two major problems. Number one was that the Jews in the north did not get along very well with the Jews of the south and vice versa.

And so to handle a clash that would take place between the two at Passover, they determine the time of day differently than the Jews in the south. Note this. There's not enough time on Friday to sacrifice all the lambs needed for all the people in Israel. So by having two different periods of time that set the day, you have two different groups of people coming to offer sacrifices. Therefore, you're able to handle the multitude of people. See that? Because Jesus was going to die on Passover, and that would be on Friday, but he can legitimately celebrate the Passover on Thursday night because all of his disciples were from where?

The northern part of Israel, except Judas. He was from Kerioth, which is in the southern part. And so everything was legit. Everything was above board. Everything was right on schedule because he knew that on the next day, everything would have to take place. And so what's going to happen? He's going to celebrate the Passover. They're going to sing a song. They're going to leave where they are in the upper room, and they will ascend up to the Garden of Gethsemane. There'll be that prayer time that he has with his men or virtually by himself because the men don't pray.

They're going to come and get him. He'll go through three trials. He'll be crucified, and he'll be dead by the time all the Passover lambs are being sacrificed on Friday. Happens very rapidly. It will just take us several months to get through all the events that take place rapidly, but we'll get them all taken care of. We'll help you understand all that's going on, but that's one of the things you need to understand. You need to come to grips with that because Christ is in complete control of everything that's going to happen.

We know that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agree that what takes place with Christ and his men happens on Thursday night. In John's Gospel, John 18 verse number 28, the Jews, the religious leaders, would not enter into the praetorium on Friday because they had not yet celebrated the Passover, and they did not want to defile themselves. So that explains to you the difference between the two, those in the north and those in the south, and how it is they celebrated the Passover. Very important to understand that, and so Christ comes and he accomplishes everything he wanted to accomplish.

Now, what about this unknown man with a picture, a named man, not an unknown man, I guess, a named man, and a man with a house who's unnamed. You read the book of Acts, and some would would speculate that it's the house of John Mark's mother. We don't know that for certain. There is nothing to prove that. We can know to some degree the location. We will go to the upper room, not this week, but next week, those of you going to Israel with me, we will go to a location that is called the upper room.

Now, is that the upper room? No. Is it in the location of the upper room? The answer is yes. How do we know that? We know that because of the archaeological digs that have taken place in that area and what they have found, and because of what they have found, we know that there was a messianic church in that area in the first century.

It would begin in that upper room. But is it that upper room? No. Is it in that location? Yes. We also know that in Acts chapter one, after Jesus ascends into glory after his resurrection, that the disciples then would go to the upper room. It was a Sabbath day's journey from where they were on the Mount of Olives, when the ascension took place, and to the upper room, and that is 2,000 cubits according to Jewish law. It would be somewhere between a half a mile and three quarters of a mile, and the location of the upper room today is just about that distance.

So you have an idea of where it is located. It's not the exact location, but an idea of where it could actually have been located at the time. But there was this man, unnamed, who carried a pitcher. There was a man who had a house who was unnamed. I love that, because for the most part, nobody knows who we are. Nobody knows your name, and nobody really cares to know your name. That's okay. Don't be offended by that, because all you need is for Jesus to know your name. That's all that matters, right?

It's all said and done. You're going to get a new name anyway, okay? A name written on you that nobody knows, okay? According to the book of Revelation. So you're going to get a new name anyway, but Jesus knew that, and Jesus shows us of a man, two men fully surrendered to the master, because they gave their home, their heart, they gave their head, and their hands. They gave it all. They provide for us an example of people who are fully surrendered to the Lord. Although we might not know their names, and although their names are not recorded in Scripture, what they did is recorded in Scripture.

And God has made sure that everybody knows that there were these two individuals, one who carried a picture into a house, and there was the man that was in the house that you'd ask the question, but the bottom line is they were fully surrendered, completely, totally surrendered to the master. Number one, because the man gave his home, gave his home.

Why is that important? Do you know how many people would pay to have a furnished room to celebrate the Passover in at Passover time? Thousands of them would pay. You have to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. You can't celebrate it anywhere else. You got to celebrate it there. And to find somebody who has a large furnished room and know about it and say, I will give you this amount of money so me and my family, my relatives can get together and celebrate the Passover. But he saved it because his home was the Lord's.

Did not Jesus say in Luke 14, verse number 33, if any man is not willing to give up all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple. Can't. This man was willing to give up his home. He was willing to give it up for Jesus at Passover when he could have made buku bucks or buku shekels. Okay. In Jesus's day, but he did not because he was fully and totally surrendered to the master in all that he has. Christ also said, what should a profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul? You can have everything you want, but what a profit you at the end when you lose your soul.

Answers. No, this man was willing to give away his home. You know, to have a home in those days was extremely valuable, priceless, but he's willing to let the Lord use it, which also tells me this. He gave away, he gave his head also. Think about that. He gave his head, his thinking, his mentality, because the mentality would be what? Jesus is coming to my house to celebrate the Passover. I'm going to tell everybody that Jesus is my house because if Jesus is at my house, guess who gets the attention?

I do. It's my house, but his head, his brain, his thinking, his mentality was all given over to the Lord. He wasn't going to succumb to the temptation of popularity and prominence in the city of Jerusalem. He wasn't going to do that. He's going to bypass all that. Keep it a secret so no one knows. Can you imagine having the most popular person to ever live? Celebrate the Passover in your home and you're not telling anybody? Somehow tell someone close to you, your best friend, because they're going to have a best friend and they're going to have a best friend and they're going to have a best friend and they're going to tell somebody and the word's going to get out.

It tells nobody anything because he'd given everything to the Lord. He was sold out to Christ and sold out to fulfilling the plan of Christ. I want you to notice this.

He gave his home, he gave his head, he gave his hands, his hands. It's a large furnished room, a large furnished room. It had to accommodate the 12 in Christ. Therefore, he had prepared it specifically for what the Lord needed. The Lord has need of it. The teacher has need of it that he might celebrate the Passover with his men. You can imagine this man willingly saying, listen, what do you need? How can I help you? How can I better prepare this place for you? What can I do to make it the best possible place for you and the teacher?

He gave his ability, he gave his mentality, he gave his property, but more than that, he gave his loyalty, gave his heart to the Lord. His heart was given over to the Lord God of Israel. There are no questions asked. There's no demand for payment. There's no negotiation of the cost. He's going to give it up freely. There is no concern about what might happen to him, his family. No questions asked because listen, when Jesus asks and demands something, the surrendered never debate with Jesus. They never criticize Jesus.

They just say, yes, Lord. What wilt thou have me to do? Like Paul on the Damascus road. They just fully surrender. You want my possessions, Lord? They're yours. You want my family, Lord? They're yours. You want my health, Lord? It's yours. You want my finances, Lord? It's yours. It's all yours. No questions asked because our heart has been totally surrendered and given over to the Lord. He'd given his heart to Christ. Think about it this way. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem or about to be born in Bethlehem, his parents went to an inn, asked the innkeeper for a place to stay.

Innkeeper, because his heart was not given to the Lord, had no room for them. He was unwilling to give up his room for Mary and Joseph and the Christ child. But this man has no name. He's willing to give it all up for the Christ at the end of his ministry because he had room for Christ in his heart. He had room for Christ in his home, had room for Christ in his head, has room for Christ with his hands, because he had all the room for Christ in his heart. My question to you is, does Christ rule in your heart?

Does he reign supreme in your heart? See, what I think he does, you will know. By what goes on in your home, what goes on in your head, and what goes on with your hands. That's how you know. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for today and we thank you for the opportunity we have to celebrate the cross. It is such a magnificent study. You are absolutely perfect in all that you do. I pray, Father, that everyone in this room would be like the unnamed owner of the house. That we would be willing to give everything to you. No matter what you ask, no matter when you ask for it, it's yours. For those who have not surrendered their life to Christ, we pray that today would be the day of their salvation. And they would come to the foot of the cross and bow in submission to the sovereign king of the universe and plead and ask for forgiveness for sins.

That their hearts may be cleansed, that they may be made anew, a new creature, a new creation for the glory of Christ. For truly, Lord, you are a great God and you alone are worthy of our praise. And today we give you thanks, for truly we have come to see and hear Jesus. Jesus, and we trust that we have through the reading of your word in Jesus name. Amen.